Decision-Making During Early Intervention Home Visits: From Minimal to Meaningful Parent Participation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Family-early educator partnerships are foundational to early childhood and early childhood special education, and collaborative decision-making regarding child and family need is recognized as a critical component of these partnerships. This study investigated how two Part C early intervention home visitors and four parents communicated during home visits, and discursively selected strategies to promote children’s development. The following research questions were addressed: (1) How is decision-making constructed through discourse by parents and home visitors during home visits? (2) How do decision-making structures contribute to parent participation in decision-making? Analysis of home visit transcripts and interviews with home visitors indicated that how home visitors introduced the opportunity to make a decision and addressed options with families played an essential role in the extent to which parents meaningfully participated in decision-making. Although home visitors intended to provide parents with opportunities for full participation, this was not consistently realized during home visits. Home visitors predominantly initiated and controlled discussion topics. Features of words spoken and actions taken through language contributed to interactional construction of home visitors as assessors and advice givers, with parents in more passive roles, such as informants and advice followers. Implications for research and practice are discussed.